Own the Summer.

Highlights are made in the offseason.

Own the Summer. Dominate the Fall.

Gear up at https://t.co/EDDQMoQd2Vhttps://t.co/2FvDx1I8EU

— Nike Football (@usnikefootball) June 1, 2016

I believe that this tweet (embedded, above) is applicable to us, as educators, too. Yes, we use the summer to recharge and spend time doing some of the things that we neglect in-between the months of August and May. But we also use the summer as a time to get ready for the upcoming school year.

• Prepare

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked what I do when I go to work during the summer. There aren't any kids at school! This makes for an opportune time for planning the upcoming school year. The building is quiet and the logistics for the upcoming year (which is being planned to be the best year ever) are outlined and prepared.

• Meet

This spring I was offered and accepted a principal position at a new school, effective July 1st. I value relationships so I will make an effort to meet with school staff and other stakeholders of the school, either individually or in groups, before staff comes back to work and students come back to school. This will be a great opportunity to learn about the school, and to get to know people that I'll be working with as individuals.

• Learn

I plan to read, a lot. I plan to read books that appeal to me both personally as well as professionally. Included in my stack that I plan to tackle are Launch, The Book Whisperer, Kids Deserve It!, The Leader Who Had No Title, Shoe Dog, Quiet Power, Blended, and Passionate Learners. I love reading.

I also plan to get back in the habit of blogging. I was on-point when it came to meeting my goal of two posts a month during the school year until April hit; then I fell off. This is my first post since then. My goal is to write at least three posts in June and then at least three posts in July.

Listening to podcasts is another avenue of learning that I plan to frequent during June and July. Five days a week I run. I have found this to be an opportune time to listen to podcasts. Some of my favorite podcasts that I am currently listening to are: The Better Leader Better Schools Podcast, The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast, Dads in Ed, Every Classroom Matters with Cool Cat Teacher, Hack Learning, Kids Deserve It!, My BAD, #PrincipalPLN, and TED Radio Hour. If anyone has any additional podcast to suggest, I am open ears.

So as we slide into our summer "break," let's be cognizant of the sports cliche of championships being won in the off-season. If we want to have a championship school year in 2016-2017 (and who doesn't?), we are going to have to put-in some work (albeit at a slower pace) during these next couple of months. What do you have planned?

Everything You've Got. Right Now!

My friend Hamish Brewer (@brewerhm), a principal in Virginia, just wrote, One More Round. Somewhere, Jeff Kubiak (@principalkubiak) labeled the post, 'Epic Epicness.' Not surprisingly, it is that good.

Instantly, I started making connections to what Hamish had written with his One More Round analogy to Rocky IV.

(For another great connection, see Andy Jacks (@_AndyJacks) follow-up piece The Falcon Fourth & A Sense of Urgency that relates the fourth quarter to this final stretch that we are entering in our school year.)

Back to Rocky IV. I love Rocky IV (guilty pleasure, I know). I can't tell you how many times that I've watched Rocky IV. And there are so many great messages and themes embedded within the plot of Rocky IV.

Some of the messages and life lessons - preparation, commitment, perseverance, desire, and confidence to name a few - that are highlighted in Rocky IV, are a main reason that I LOVE sports. The character traits that sports teach us are the character traits that we all need to embody as educators. And these are the character traits that we all need to explicitly teach to our students.

There are some wonderful scenes leading-up to Rocky Balboa's Christmas Day fight in Russia with Ivan Drago. But the bout between Rocky and Drago kind of encompasses the roller coaster of emotions that we, as educators, experience any given school year.

School starts and you are ready; you've spent the past month (couple of months) preparing. It is going to be a tough fight, but you've got this. You're anxious, and that anxiousness is a good feeling of excitement!

While the year started well, things have taken a turn. The days are getting longer, and stuff is coming at you. You're back is against the ropes. You feel as though you are about to get knocked down and/or even knocked out.

But you don't. Somewhere, somehow you find the inspiration that you need. Maybe it's your PLC or your PLN or your family and friends. The inspiration that your kids deserve. You keep going.

You scratch, you claw, you do whatever it takes to gain advantage. Because #KidsDeserveIt and this is the ONE and ONLY chance that you get to make an impact with them.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. You start to feel re-energized. You keep moving forward. Bit-by-bit you keep chipping and clawing away at it.

You did it. You made it. You are exhausted, but you feel wonderful. You know that you just gave your best effort; you poured your heart and soul into something - these students, YOUR KIDS - for nine months.

Like Duke tells Rocky...

"Everything you've got. Right now!" Finish the year strong. We're almost there. 

Compassion #KidsDeserveIt

The above two images appear at the beginning of Dan Tricarico's chapter titled, 'Compassion,' in his book The Zen Teacher. He then goes on to say:

"As teachers, we have ample opportunity to show compassion in every hour of every class of every day. More than that, we have a special, even sacred, obligation to express compassion. Not only do we enlighten, but we are also expected to uplift those around us and to ease their struggles."

How do we do that? How do we not just show compassion, but uplift those around us and ease their struggles? That is potentially a heavy burden. We have some students that come to us with some serious baggage that we don't know anything about. And on top of that we can't even relate to a lot of the struggles that a lot of our students are "dealing" with.

These are skills that they don't explicitly teach us in our teacher training programs.

So I return to my question, how do we do that?

I don't think that it has to be complicated. In fact, I think that the answers are really quite simple. We have to remember that these are just kids that we are working with. We have to remember to exhibit patience and remain calm. We have to remember to never take things personally. We have to remember that we chose this profession. We have to remember to enjoy the moment. We have to remember to talk to kids, ask them questions, make connections with them. We have to remember to smile. And we have to remember to give high fives...give lots of high fives!